Apoprogoninae is a

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unisp ...

subfamily In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end botanical subfamily names with "-oideae", and zo ...

of the

moth Moths are a group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not Butterfly, butterflies. They were previously classified as suborder Heterocera, but the group is Paraphyly, paraphyletic with respect to butterflies (s ...

family

Sematuridae Sematuridae is a Family (biology), family of moths in the lepidopteran Order (biology), order that contains two Subfamily, subfamilies (Joël Minet, Minet and Malcolm Scoble, Scoble, 1999). Taxonomy, systematics, and identification These are lar ...

. Its single genus, ''Apoprogones'', containing a single species, ''Apoprogones hesperistis'', were both described by

George Hampson Sir George Francis Hampson, 10th Baronet (14 January 1860 – 15 October 1936) was an English entomologist. Hampson studied at Charterhouse School and Exeter College, Oxford. He travelled to India to become a tea-planter in the Nilgiri Hills ...

in 1903.Image
/ref> It is known from

Eswatini Eswatini, formally the Kingdom of Eswatini, also known by its former official names Swaziland and the Kingdom of Swaziland, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. It is bordered by South Africa on all sides except the northeast, where i ...

and

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

Taxonomy and systematics

''Apoprogones hesperistis'' is presumably the sister taxon of some or all South American Sematuridae but fresh collections are probably needed to use a

DNA sequencing DNA sequencing is the process of determining the nucleic acid sequence – the order of nucleotides in DNA. It includes any method or technology that is used to determine the order of the four bases: adenine, thymine, cytosine, and guanine. The ...

approach to this question. The moth measures 4 cm in wingspan and was previously placed in the family Castniidae (Shields and Dvorak, 1979) but it was recognised by Anthonie Johannes Theodorus Janse (Janse, 1932) as belonging to this family.

Morphology and identification

''A. hesperistis'' has strongly clubbed or hooked antennae, like a

butterfly Butterflies are winged insects from the lepidopteran superfamily Papilionoidea, characterized by large, often brightly coloured wings that often fold together when at rest, and a conspicuous, fluttering flight. The oldest butterfly fossi ...

, giving it a skipper-like appearance (Shields and Dvorak, 1979), hence the species name. The hindwing is not tailed, unlike

Sematurinae Sematurinae is a subfamily of moths in the Family (biology), family Sematuridae represented by at least 29 species in the Neotropics. Taxonomy, classification and identification Sematurinae has three principal genus, genera, and possibly another ...

which have the veins "M2" and "M3" in the hindwing bearing tails (Minet and Scoble, 1999). The adult male moth has a pair of hair-pencils at the base of the

abdomen The abdomen (colloquially called the gut, belly, tummy, midriff, tucky, or stomach) is the front part of the torso between the thorax (chest) and pelvis in humans and in other vertebrates. The area occupied by the abdomen is called the abdominal ...

. On the head (in contrast to

) the ocelli are absent and the

compound eye A compound eye is a Eye, visual organ found in arthropods such as insects and crustaceans. It may consist of thousands of ommatidium, ommatidia, which are tiny independent photoreception units that consist of a cornea, lens (anatomy), lens, and p ...

s are not hairy; the wing venation differs between subfamilies and the forewing "M1" vein is "free" as opposed to sharing a "stalk" with vein "R1" in

(Minet and Scoble, 1999). These and other structural differences have been enough for some authors to consider the African and American groups distinct at family level.

Conservation

Apoprogoninae is an evolutionarily distinctive higher-level

taxon In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; : taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular name and ...

which is geographically restricted and apparently not seen since its description in the early 1900s, and therefore merits dedicated conservation attention and new surveys.EDGE of Existence
/ref>

Taxonomy and systematics

Morphology and identification

Conservation

References

Further reading